


Pencils

by chibistarlyte



Series: Hobbit Drabbles [8]
Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Domestic Fluff, Drabble, M/M, Plants
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-15
Updated: 2016-06-15
Packaged: 2018-07-15 05:36:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7210106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chibistarlyte/pseuds/chibistarlyte
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thorin wasn't entirely sure why Bilbo had a bunch of pencils sticking out of his planting pots.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pencils

**Author's Note:**

> Just a dumb little thing I wrote based on a post I saw on tumblr about these pencils that have seed pods on them and when the pencil gets too short to use, you can plant them and grow stuff. I immediately thought of Bilbo.
> 
> Not beta'd. Enjoy!

It wasn’t uncommon for new potted plants to appear around the house. From the first day they moved in together, Thorin had quickly grown to expect the addition of more plants than could fit on any given windowsill. Their front stoop was covered in plants, and so was their porch in the backyard. Bilbo had such a wide array of different foliage and flowers and bushes that Thorin couldn’t possibly begin to name, save for a few of the well-know types of plants. With all the rare and odd plants currently under his fiancé’s care, Thorin thought he’d seen it all.

However, never before had he seen pencils sticking out of some of Bilbo’s pots.

When he first noticed them, he’d been doing the dishes and idly glancing out the window above the kitchen sink. Like every other sill in the house, this one was also covered in tiny little pots containing seedlings and, in some, small but fully grown house plants. He glossed over the newer pots with tired eyes, and had to do a double take when he saw something strange poking out of the soil.

Letting the hot water run over his idle hands, Thorin leaned over the sink to better inspect the little pots. There, in the recently watered soil, was a pencil, standing at an angle with the graphite tip slantedly pointing up at the ceiling.

That wasn’t the only one, though. Each of the new pots on display had a pencil buried into the dirt. Thorin continued to study them as he finished washing the dishes. After drying his pruny hands, he picked up one of the pots and brought it close to his face. He squinted to read the small print embossing the pencil within.

_ Cilantro _ , it said. And Thorin was confused.

Later in bed that night, Thorin sat against the headboard reading some book he was only half paying attention to. Bilbo hadn’t come to bed yet, and Thorin couldn’t go to sleep without cuddling up to him. So he tried to keep himself occupied until Bilbo decided to hit the hay.

It wasn’t much longer until Bilbo finally came upstairs to their room, toeing the door open and carrying a few pots over to the decorative table by the window. He hummed as he rearranged the pots already on the table to make room for the new ones. Thorin watched him, eyeing the pots suspiciously. None of them had plants in them, except, Thorin surmised, some seeds that Bilbo had just planted inside. But, like the few he spotted in the kitchen, these, too, had pencils sticking out of them.

“Why are there pencils in your pots?” he blurted out.

Bilbo turned and eyed his fiancé. “Oh, these?” he asked, to which Thorin nodded in response. A smile lit up Bilbo's face and he carried one of the little pots over to the bed. “It's the greatest thing.” Mindful of not getting dirt on their sheets, Bilbo sat on the bed and picked the pencil out of the pot.

“Where's the eraser?” Thorin asked. There was a piece of green…something where an eraser would usually be.

“There isn't one. Instead, it's replaced by this little pod that contains seeds to a plant, whatever is written on the pencil,” Bilbo explained, his smile growing wider yet. “When the pencil gets too short to use, you stick the end in some soil and move it around every few days to spread the seeds. Then they’ll start to grow after a few weeks!”

Seeing the smile on Bilbo’s face, the enthusiasm and passion in his green eyes, Thorin couldn’t help but share a smile of his own. “That’s...actually, really neat,” he admitted, gently taking the pencil Bilbo was holding and examining it for himself.

“Isn’t it, though?” Bilbo said. He held the pot out to Thorin, and Thorin placed the pencil back into the soil.

A few weeks later, just like Bilbo had said, all the pencil pots started sprouting, each bearing a small and unique seedling that would grow and develop over time. And as these ones were growing, Thorin kept finding even more pots with pencils in them around the house, just waiting to sprout.

One thing was for certain...they were definitely going to need a bigger place, one that would fit all of Bilbo’s plants. And together, they would nurture them and watch them grow.


End file.
